IT's A.........

I, Sierra, and Madison headed to the doctor's office bright and early this morning.

I was a little bit nervous.

I am not sure why, but I was.

I wanted Nate to come, but he is so busy with his new practice.

The girls were really good though and sat pretty still, except for Madison who kept getting off of her chair to hold my hand.

The doctor asked the girls, "Have you ever seen an ultrasound?"

Sierra said, "Oh yeah, hundreds."

The doctor looked at me cockeyed.

I said, "She saw one. Madison's."

I am really surprise she remembers.

The doctor of course spent a lot of time at the babies head, making sure the brain was developing and then looking at his face.

He slowly moved down the spine and it seemed like forever until he got to the shot below.

He asked me, "So, what is the gender?"

I said, "A boy."

He said, "Yep, it is pretty obvious. I will give you a 100% percent guarantee on the gender of this child."

He also said, "The baby looks healthy and is measuring perfectly on date."

So, I guess we will be welcoming Gunnison Nathan to the world on January 14th, give or take a couple days, hopefully take.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILY

 Happy Birthday, to the sweetest, kindest, most generous person I know.

Lily moved into our ward about a year ago and has been such a huge blessing in all of our lives.

We wouldn't be the same without her.

Thanks Lily for being you.

 

We went to a Italian Restaurant for lunch.

The food was good.

The pregnant lady kept spilling balsamic vinegar on herself.

It was really attractive on her circular little belly.

I wish I had of ordered pasta. I know people should order pasta at an Italian restaurant, but I am always doing the thing that doesn't make sense and then wishing I hadn't.

This is my favorite picture of the day. Lily and Annie look radiant and Elise and Barbara look like... come on pregnant lady, stop taking pictures already!

 

Well, you are in for a treat because tomorrow I will be announcing whether this sweet baby growing inside me is a boy or a girl. Stay tuned.

MORNING ERRANDS

We ran some morning errands together.

There is only a grocery store, an ace hardware store, and a family dollar in this little town.

I needed cleaning supplies.

A lot of them.

My sweet friend is moving and needed a little help cleaning up her new house.

We went shopping early.

We were waiting till the family dollar was open, which apparently isn't until 9:00am.

MJ was balancing on the parking lot cement dividers.

She would walk to the end and then come and take another bit of her oatmeal.

Apparently, it would take her a long time to chew up, if I called her back early she would open her mouth and show me that she was still working on it.

The oatmeal wasn't chewy. She just doesn't really like oatmeal.

 

Not sure exactly sure what she was looking at in this moment but it must have been something pretty serious.

 

She was a good little helper today.

She sponged walls. There may have been a few puddles of water on the floor, but she was helping.

She had to have a sponge in every color.

After I took her sponges away and mopped up the floor, she entertained herself by climbing on my back or clinging to my foot as I cleaned or begging me to hold her.

She was a bit of a rascal but she still let me get a lot done, so I can hardly complain.

POOR TORTURED CAT

She flings him over her shoulder and carries him around the backyard.

She drags him by his tail and by his neck.

She hauls him to the top of the slide and slides down with him.
She plays hide-and-go Eddy with her sister and him.
One of them hides the cat, the other finds him.

She basically tortures him.

 

She giggles her lungs out when he climbs the wood singset posts.

She giggles when she sees him chase a bug in the grass.

She loves him more than any creature she has ever known.

 

I hope he makes it.

I hope he doesn't turn mean.

I hope he is patient with her.

Because she sure loves him.
And you know what, I think he knows that because he runs to her everytime she opens the back door.
And last night the sprinklers came on and scared him and he ran away, but this morning he was purring at the front door waiting for some one to love, torcher him again.

CHEF BRAD

 Chef Brad or as we call him Uncle Brad came to visit again.

We were so excited.

He cooks for us. It makes me so happy. He loves food and who doesn't love food and who wouldn't want a Chef to come and cook for them for a few days.

You can watch his show here.

He is very talented. You are going to love watching his show. Go click on the link.

He taught me a few quick meals that I am super excited to try out.

My girls love him. He loves them. 

He has a gift at making everyone feel loved.

Uncle Brad, Nate and Cousin Tate are doing dude things today. Nate took them out fishing.

I wish Nate had of been busy because then we would of been able to tour all the beautiful fruit orchards in the area and go out for some good Thai food.

Sigh.

Next time hopefully Nate will be too busy.

New Practice.

What I have been working on lately. Business Cards and Flyers.

I giggle everytime I say the name of Nate's practice.

Just say it. It will make you giggle too.

I feel like a cheerleader.

And the neon green wasn't my choice, but it is growing on me.

When Nate asked me to make him a flyer with the phone number tabs, I laughed.

This is how our conversation went.

"Are you going to stick them in bathroom stalls?"

"No."

"Then what?"

"Grocery Stores."

"Cheesy, Getto Marketing."

"I know, but it works."

Here we are, a few weeks in and things are going well.

I am hopeful I will be able to meet my bills next month, which will be huge.

I thank my Father-in-Heaven for blessing us so much.

EDISON

 I know everyone will think I am crazy. I kind of think I am crazy.

This move has allowed us for the first time in our lives to have a pet.

Our friends moved and were giving away their half grown kittens.

Their daughter brought this little cat to the door and begged us to take it.

She may have had tears in her eyes.

She may have suggested a few times if we didn't take it would go to the human society.

I maybe thought it was a dirty trick.

I caved.

I shouldn't have but I did.

I think Sierra is a little in love.

 

It is an outside cat.

It isn't allowed in the house.

If it runs away tonight, I may not be too terribly sad.

We will see if she loved it enough for it to stick around.

P.S. Thank you Jess for rescuing me again. The card reader worked perfectly. We are back in business.

NOT THAT GOOD, NOT THAT HORRIBLE

Well, I asked her how her first day of 2nd grade was and she said, "Not that good and not that horrible."

 

I can't believe how big she is. I wish I could keep her little but the days keep going by more and more quickly and she keeps growing more and more rapidly.

DISAPPEARING

Just incase you have wondered where I have gone.

My camera card stopped working in the drive. I called HP they said they could fix it, if we set the computer back to its factory setting. However, I don't have time to save all the important information that I don't want erased because I am in the middle of moving.

I can't even begin to describe how busy this move has been or how tired I am.

Plus, Nate has been full time at his new office. He has been gone early and home late six days a week, which I am not use to after having him only gone for four.

My girls have been constantly bickering since summer has come to a close. Since moving we have had late nights and early mornings which has not been a good combination for bringing out the best in them.Schools starts Monday, so seperation for part of the day should bring out more sisterly love.

The hardest part should be behind me by Tuesday. Wish me luck. I will see you sometime after that.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl

We have been together for seven years and nine months and I have loved every second of it!

I wouldn't trade all the sleepless nights, the worried filled days, the bruised forehead and scraped knees, for the whole universe.

I wouldn't trade all the giggles, the kisses, the hugs and the times you have said, "You are the best mom ever!" For the whole of the universe.

You mean everything to me.

I could have never hand picked a better first child and oldest daughter.

You are so compassionate.

You feel for other people and hurt when others hurt.

You have such a strong feeling of what is right and wrong.

You want to be good and choose the right.

You love to laugh and have taught me more about what it means to be sincerely happy than anyone.

You have the best imagination of any kid I have ever known.

You are constantly creating worlds and adventures for you and your little sister, and sometimes the neighbors, to go on.

You are a little helper and a companion for me. I love it when you ask to help me make dinner or clean the kitchen.

You love math. It is your favorite subject. You are always begging me to give you sums to add in your head.

You have changed your favorite color to blue.

You are such a good older sister. You help your little sister all time.

Your dad thinks you are the best, most talented child on the planet.

The other day you were watching wipe out together, your daddy said, "Sierra you could win that show so easily!" You said, "Yeah, I bet I could."

You have a lot of confidence in your ability to accomplish things.

Whatever you do, you do it well.

You have great coordination and are the only child I know of that could easily slice vegetable with a knife at the the age of four.

I remember you at the age of two you saying, "I can do it, I can do it!" Whenever there was an obstacle in front of you.

Do you know what? Your daddy and I both believe you can do it, "You can do anything. You will do so much! Your life is full of endless possibilities and we can't wait for another seven years!"

I am so bummed because my camera isn't working for some strange reason.

I couldn't take pictures of your special day.

You went swimming and were so excited to try the diving board for the first time.

You jumped off of it over and over and over again and said it was the best thing ever.

You are starting to become quite the swimmer.

All you wanted for your birthday was a stuffed animal.

I spent hours looking at all of them last night. I am not into stuffed animals, so it was hard for me to buy one... even though it is all you wanted.

I finally found an oversized dog at Target. He went in the cart. You named him Sandy.

I think you were more excited about the My Little Pony cake topper and have spent more time playing with it than Sandy. I should have just bought more pony's.

You also got markers and a Junie B Jones book.

Grandma McKnight brought you a present and so did the Primary Presidency and your friend Victoria who lives across the street and Sister K, but the best reaction was from the presents that Sister Palmer brought you last week for your birthday. I don't think I have ever seen a little girl more excited. You kept screaming, "Oh my!" Sister Palmer got the biggest kick out of it.

I love your stinkin' guts. STOP GROWING SO FAST!



BAD DREAMS

My girls wouldn't sleep in their bed last night.

The two have vivid imaginations.

Madison has gotten as bad as Sierra.

She was hiding in the closet last night and this is her story.

She is stickin' to it.

She swears a monster touched her arm.

With all of the toys in the closet it could have been any number of things, but she insists.

Oh, how will I survive?

I love you girls but please sleep in your own bed, there really truly is no such things as monsters.

Madison and Sierra even collaborated on this picture of what they saw.

Doesn't look scary to me, looks kind of funny.

Sigh.